Our View: Michigan needs to raise 1997 fuel tax to save our roads

Comment

The Daily Telegram - Adrian, MI

Writer

Posted Feb. 23, 2014 at 9:00 AM

Posted Feb. 23, 2014 at 9:00 AM

It shouldn’t take a sinkhole collapsing Curtis Road, or debate whether to fix Occidental Highway’s potholes over potholes elsewhere, to show Michigan’s road funding system is no match for its road maintenance problems.

For the past decade, deterioration has been a flashing light. Refusing to fix the system is costing more money in the long run and putting people’s lives in jeopardy. Kirk Steudle, director of Michigan Department of Transportation and an Adrian High School graduate, said this year’s damage will be historic.

“We’re going to see one of the biggest pavement breakouts we’ve probably ever seen in our lifetime,” Steudle told the House transportation budget subcommittee Feb. 11.

A bipartisan 2011 report found Michigan would need to more than double the $1.28 billion it spends per year on roads and bridges just to keep up with growing costs. Gov. Rick Snyder, supported by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, challenged the Legislature in 2011 to raise gas taxes and/or fees to come up with another $1 billion for roads.

So far, though, lawmakers have only proposed bandages from this year’s general fund surplus. They approved $115 million for this year for 103 state projects, including the controversial decision to work on M-52 rather than Occidental Highway in Lenawee County. A new Senate bill proposed Thursday would authorize another $100 million, some of which will be eaten up by this year’s increased road plowing and salting costs.

Part of the problem is that state road funding is still stuck in 1997, the year Michigan’s fuel tax went up to a total of 19 cents per gallon. Since then, costs have skyrocketed for everything needed to fix roads, from asphalt to fuel to health insurance for workers. Revenues, though, are basically flat due to better vehicle mileage. So, while people are paying almost three times as much for gas as they did when it was $1.25 per gallon in 1997, none of the increase is going to road repair. That’s a critical mistake.

Another problem is the cumulative effect of that decade of neglect. Problems that could have been fixed more cheaply years ago had to be put off and now will cost significantly more.

Add to that Lansing’s micromanaging of how local projects are prioritized, or tied up with bid rules when road commissions could do the same job for less money. Realistically, there are more than enough repairs to keep every road contractor busy.

Michigan needs several changes.

First, lawmakers and residents need to quit denying the necessity for raising the fuel tax beyond 1997’s level. We get what we pay for or, in this case, what we aren’t paying to fix. Potholes won’t be filled by trying to pin all the problems on semis. (Semis also have multiple axles, so they actually distribute their weight comparably to some giant pickups.) Bridges won’t be repaired talking of waste. (While waste must always be challenged, there simply isn’t $150 million — let alone $1.5 billion — being wasted.) And, if a fuel hike is unpopular but necessary, that’s a test of true leadership.

Page 2 of 2 - Second, Lansing needs to transparently allow MDOT and local commissions to prioritize projects based on local experience. When M-52 was named as Lenawee County’s only project among the first 103, it raised questions of competence as well as of favoritism. Anyone driving Occidental Highway and M-52 can feel for themselves which is in more dire condition.

Finally, road funding needs to be protected from competing interests, whether that be tax cuts or new education spending. Children can’t use schools if they can’t be safely driven to them, and wheel and axle damage quickly wipes out any savings taxpayers might enjoy from a tiny tax cut.

Unpopular though it will be, bringing the fuel tax out of the 1990s must be done. Otherwise, Michigan drivers can look forward to more gravel roads in the 2020s.